TIFF at 50: A journey from modest Canadian showcase to cinematic icon

How the Toronto International Film Festival grew from a modest Canadian showcase into one of the world's most influential cinematic galas

Fifty years ago, a trio of Canadians, Bill Marshall, Dusty Cohl and Henk Van der Kolk, launched the Festival of Festivals in Toronto, bringing movies from film fests around the world, with a rather modest ambition: “Hopefully, there is something for everyone.”

 

Today, there’s nothing modest about the scale of the event, now known as the Toronto International Film Festival, or TIFF. The annual film festival, held in September every year, screened 280 films from around the world and boasted an attendance of over 700,000 last year. It is the world's largest public film festival.

 

Over the years, TIFF has made a name for itself as a home to the world’s biggest gathering of enthusiastic and generous filmgoers; a film star and celebrity magnet; a launch pad for films, filmmakers and talent; and the ultimate tastemaker for the following awards season. Adding another dimension to its programme, TIFF plans to launch a film market next year.

 

It didn’t take long for the festival to start drawing stars to Toronto. Within its first few years, filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard, Brian De Palma and Martin Scorsese came calling, as did mega stars like Robert De Niro, Kevin Kline and Glenn Close.

 

Many went on to stardom after coming to TIFF, including Daniel Day-Lewis who was noticed in the 1985 premiere of My Beautiful Laundrette. Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar’s film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown played at TIFF in 1988 and was nominated for an Oscar in the international film category. A year earlier, TIFF had showcased his work, declaring, “Almodovar’s work is virtually unknown in North America… some predict he will turn into Europe’s next major filmmaker.” American documentary maker Michael Moore premiered his debut film Roger & Me at TIFF in 1989 and later credited the festival with launching his career. “Actually, launch is too soft of a word,” Moore said, labelling it “rocket propulsion”.

 

TIFF has had that effect on many careers, especially with its much loved People’s Choice Award. Chariots of Fire (1981), directed by Hugh Hudson, was the first People’s Choice award winner to subsequently win a Best Picture Oscar. But, perhaps, the most sensational example of TIFF igniting interest in a film was the case of Slumdog Millionaire (2008), whose sleeper-hit turn at the festival and the People’s Choice award propelled it on to box office success and eight Oscars, including for music composer A R Rahman.

 

Other Toronto audience favourites that have later won Oscar awards include The King’s Speech (2010) and 12 Years A Slave (2013). 

(We have a lot of hollywood films and stars at our festival, we have some big european stars, and it made sense to have some of the star-driven films from india as well) Cameron Bailey, CEO of TIFF. | Getty Image

 

The India presence

 

Indian cinema has long had a platform at TIFF, featuring Indian arthouse and parallel cinema since the 1980s. “TIFF and Indian/ South Asian cinema have a unique, symbiotic relationship different from other A-list festivals like Cannes, Berlin, Venice or even Telluride, as they don’t have a significant South Asian population,” says Meenakshi Shedde, senior programme advisor, South Asia, at TIFF. Adds Robyn Citizen, director of programming and lead programmer for South Asia, “The response from audiences is always incredible. And it’s always sold out.” Of course, this includes films like Thank You For Coming (2023), the commercial gala title with Anil Kapoor in a supporting role. “I mean, we could hear the screams from the fifth floor; people were ecstatic. But even the smaller films from India are very well attended,” says Citizen.

 

Over the past couple of decades, TIFF has cast its net wider to include commercial cinema, or Bollywood fare, thanks to Cameron Bailey, now the CEO of TIFF. In 2005, he started programming Indian cinema for the festival and decided to add Bollywood films to the line-up. In an earlier interview, Bailey said, “We have a lot of Hollywood films and stars at our festival, we have some big European stars, and it made sense to have some of the star-driven films from India as well.”

 

That initiative started with a bang, bringing the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna to TIFF in 2006. The screaming crowds that showed up to see Khan and Amitabh Bachchan dwarfed the turnout for Brad Pitt the previous night. “It was the biggest event we had at the festival that year and it showed us the potential for bringing big, popular Indian cinema to Toronto,” Bailey said.

 

He is wearing his programming hat again this year, to bring back TIFF favourite Anurag Kashyap with his latest film, Bandar. He was also instrumental in bringing another major attraction for Indian visitors to TIFF this year – the North American premiere of the 4K restoration of the Hindi blockbuster Sholay, which coincidentally is also celebrating its 50th anniversary.

 

Just as exposure at TIFF has helped several films win Oscar and other awards glory, Indian films have gained as well. “TIFF has a reputation for…being a gateway to the North American market,” says Shedde. She points out that Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies (2023), which premiered at TIFF, was picked as India’s entry for the Oscars, and Sandhya Suri’s Santosh (2024) made it to the Oscar nominees shortlist as a UK film.

 

“The diverse selection and awards for South Asian films at TIFF, including regional language films like Jayant Somalkar’s Sthal – A Match (2023) in Marathi, have helped them get theatrical and/or streaming distribution in India and/or overseas,” Shedde adds.

 

Enter: The Market

 

The government of Canada has estimated that TIFF adds over Canadian $115 million ($82.6 million) in economic activity to the region every year.

 

For TIFF, the next area of focus is to become a major destination for film sales and projects in various stages of production. Ottawa has pitched in with a C$23-million ($16.5 million) investment over three years. “Whether you’re buying, selling, pitching, or connecting, Toronto has long been a great place for the film industry to do business,” said Bailey about the 2026 launch of TIFF: The Market. He added, “Our goal with the Market is to bring the whole world's screen industry to Canada's doorstep every year.”

 

For many years, TIFF has had an informal market, witnessing film deals of up to C$30 million ($21.5 million) in some years. Unlike Cannes’ Marche du Film or the European Film Market that runs alongside the Berlin film festival, there is no film market attached to a major film festival in North America. The main competition will come from the long-running, independent American Film Market, which reportedly sees $1 billion worth of deals signed every year.

 

Among those looking forward to an official content market is Christina Piovesan, head of production at the Toronto-based Elevation Pictures. She says she has brought at least half a dozen films to TIFF over the years, and sold a couple of them at the festival. “It's a really great place to sell your film. The Americans are looking to buy, you know, I guess off the summer, they're looking for some fall activity and it's great. They're excited, they come to the screenings, they watch with an audience. And I've been successful selling out of TIFF.”

 

TIFF’s market could also be a “game changer” for Indian films, according to Shedde. “TIFF Market will open up possibilities for Indian and international films that find it increasingly difficult to find markets, since Indian theatres never fully recovered post-Covid, audiences often prefer online viewing, and as for streaming platforms, power is concentrated in a few streamers, which do not always welcome creative risks,” she adds.

 

The controversy and beyond

 

As TIFF gears up to kick off its 50th edition, it has managed to put to rest, for now, a controversy that threatened to overshadow its milestone year. A documentary film by Canadian director and TIFF veteran Barry Avrich, The Road Between Us, was originally scheduled in the programme. The film focuses on the mission of a retired Israeli army officer to rescue his family members during the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas terrorists. TIFF drew condemnation when it sought to drop the film citing the risk of major and disruptive protests against it. On Wednesday, Bailey apologised for TIFF’s handling of the issue and announced the film would be screened at TIFF this year.

 

Once TIFF 50 opens on September 4, the focus will shift to red carpets, silver screens and golden flashes from cameras. Until it ends on September 14, the lights will be on, the cameras will roll and TIFF’s visitors will be hungry for action. 

A still from Bayaan, premiering at TIFF this year; stills from Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire (2008); Satyajit Ray’s Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest) (1970); and RameshSippy’s Sholay (1975)

     

Indian films at TIFF this year (Sept 4-14, 2025) 

• Monkey in a Cage (Bandar): Director: Anurag Kashyap World Premiere
• Bayaan: Director: Bikas Ranjan Mishra; World Premiere
• Homebound: Director: Neeraj Ghaywan, Executive Producer: Martin Scorsese; North American Premiere
• In Search of the Sky (Vimukt): Director: Jitank Singh Gurjar; World Premiere
• Gandhi: Creators: Hansal Mehta, Sameer Nair; World Premiere
• Sholay 4K restoration: Director: Ramesh Sippy; North American Premiere
• Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest) 4K restoration: Director: Satyajit Ray; North American Premiere

 

 

Indira Kannan is a Toronto-based independent journalist